Monday, March 18, 2013

March 11, 2013

Dear
Family and whoever else you are,

Another week has gone
by here in Hungary, therefore, 7 days have passed since my last email. This
week hasn't been overly exciting or anything, but I definitely experienced some
ups and downs ezen a héten. I met with the Mission President this week, and I also
experienced my first real kind of embarrassing mistakes with the language. And,
we only got on the wrong train once this week.

Well, to be specific-
I had an interview with President Smith a few days ago, and had a few of the
rules cleared up for me, and I found out that we are allowed to listen to any
music that we want, as long as we feel that it doesn't take away from the
Spirit. Also, we are allowed to watch 1 real movie (as in any movie) per
transfer, which blew my mind! Haha. But we aren't supposed to email non-family
members. The rules here are super strange, if you ask me, haha.

Well, I do have 2
funny stories for you.

1. We were in a
program with this guy, and were talking to him about prayer, and how it helps
us through things we struggle with. At one point, I was asked to give an
example from my life, so I decided to talk about the difficulty of the
language. Then I tried to say that sometimes, I see other people learning
faster than me, and compare myself to them, and feel like I'm behind or that
I'm not progressing with the language. Then the investigator, Laci, kept asking
me questions, and I kept trying to answer him, even though I had no idea what
he was talking about. When I thought he was asking me who I compare myself to,
I told him about a ton of elders who I know have been learning very quickly,
like Elder Bracken (my trainer), Elder Judd (my current companion), etc.

But after the program,
my companion informed me that I pretty much told Laci that all those people
compare me to other elders, and they all say that I'm dumb and slow and I'll
never learn this language... so I pretty much made my trainer, companion and
other friends look like jerks, haha. You know you're having trouble with the
language when you can't even effectively explain that you're having trouble
with the language... haha

2. I was saying a
prayer with an investigator last night. I tried to say, "Köszönjük neked
a barátságainkat (we thank you for our friendships)," but I
actually said, "barátsegainkat," which kinda-sorta means "friend
butts."